European Trade Routes 1100-1500

If there was ever an important period historians, and people could put a finger on, this would be it. This is the important period where the world's countries, kingdoms, and dynasties established trade routes. This is the period where countries were made and countries were destroyed because of the importance of trade and the importance of building a fundamental, religious, and economical way of life. This paper will discuss the goals and functions of trades, and traders, and a historical analysis of world trade. This paper will also get into world trade patterns, of The Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, The Indian Ocean, The Silk routes, China and The South China Sea, Europe and The Mediterranean, and The Atlantic Exploration.

The goals and functions of world trade today vary from when it started. Long distance trading today is a big part of everyday life for us. Most of our products, as you can see, come from China, Japan, Italy and other places across the ocean. Where would we be today if long distance trading wasn't a part of everyday life? Asia and Europe play a huge part in our lives, and in what we eat, function with, and for children, play with. When long distance trading first started, it wasn't as important as it is now. Traders mostly supplied goods for the rich who could afford these valuable goods, and afford the long distance accommodations. Supplies like gold, spices, silks, and others were sold to the rich and they were valued depending on weight and distance of the trade. A large part of the exchange economy was local, dealing with crops, and local manufactured products. The only problem with this was that it wasn't pricey and it didn't weigh much compared to long distance supplies, which made it difficult to make any profit whatsoever. Sometimes, to help out locals and the upper echelon, goods were traded for other goods instead of money. The most important part of trade was having a market to trade with. If there was no market,...

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...Eurasian (Silk Route) | |
|Social |The Silk Road separates China from Europe and Western Asia. It was a very dangerous route. Much of it|
| |is taken up by the Taklimakan desert, one of the most hostile environments. There is almost no |
| |vegetation, and very little rainfall. Sandstorms were very common, and killed many people. |
|Political |The western end of the traderoute developed earlier than the eastern end, because of the development|
| |of the empires in the west, and the easier terrain of Persia and Syria. The Iranian empire of Persia |
| |was in control of a large area of the Middle East. This extended as far as the Indian Kingdoms to the|
| |east. |
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...African’s were among the richest of people back in the 1000’s. Effects of trade brought cities to faster than they rise. Great civilizations from Ghana to Zimbabwe both flourished but, had their tragic end. But, it provided them with a lot of things such as gold, salt slaves etc. People introduced camels to the desert in 200 a.d. Merchants primarily used them for trade to the Empires in the middle of the desert. They traded things such as gold, ivory, ostrich feathers, animal hides, and slaves. According to document 5 “The salt trade made the city prosperous; in Africa, salt ranked with gold and slaves in value. For Merchants to risk camels over hundreds of miles of burning sand, the profits must have been enormous” (22). This means that merchants traveled to cities in the desert to make mounds of cash. This traderoute was the “trans-Saharan trade’ which they used camels to travel across. Because, Of the Saharan traderoutes many cities like Ghana rose and prospered. It also bought new crops from south and Southeast Asia such as, sugarcane, coconuts, bananas, asian rice, and vegetables. Another effect is slavery; they used slaves to break up the salt so it could be traded. Also trading had a major effect on Islam. According to document 8 “ The leaders became integrated into African societies by playing religious,social,and political roles similar...